


Camp Roommates

by teej_318



Series: Byler and Reddie Oneshots [11]
Category: IT (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Pennywise (IT), Boys Hugging, Comfort, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Protective Richie Tozier, Richie and Eddie are roommates, Richie is a good friend, Soft Eddie Kaspbrak, Summer Camp AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-16
Updated: 2019-07-16
Packaged: 2020-06-29 20:06:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19837603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teej_318/pseuds/teej_318
Summary: Requested by spastuetheobsessedphylosopher on Tumblr: Richie and Eddie are camp roommates who have known about each other, but were both too nervous to meet one another during past years at the summer camp.





	Camp Roommates

Eddie stood outside of his assigned tent and took a deep breath before he got the courage to open the zipper to meet his roommate for the week. He had been assigned to share his tent with Richie Tozier, a boy whom Eddie had seen from time-to-time during his previous times at summer camp. They two had never properly been introduced to each other, but had politely spoken to each other in passing, nothing more than a, “Hi, how are you?” Eddie wasn’t sure what to make of this boy, but he hoped that could get along during the week they’d be sharing a tent. If not, at least Eddie would only have to see Richie at night, and even then, ignoring him would be easy as long as Richie wouldn’t try to keep him awake.

Finally, Eddie sighed as he opened the zipper of the tent. Richie was already inside, spreading out his sleeping bag on one side of the tent, leaving plenty of room for Eddie’s backpack and sleeping bag. Eddie slowly inched his way into the tent and Richie only looked up once he was inside.

“Hi,” Richie said politely. “I’m Richie Tozier. So you must be Eddie?”

Eddie nodded timidly as he opened his backpack and started taking some things out of it and setting up his bedding space.

“It’s nice to meet you, Eds.”

“It’s just Eddie,” Eddie said shyly.

“Okay, _Eddie_. Well it’s nice to meet you. I’ve seen you around camp before, but I’ve always been too nervous to talk to you.”

Eddie’s eyes shot up.

“Why would you be nervous about talking to me?”

Richie shrugged.

“I guess I just thought you were too good to want to talk to someone like me. People don’t usually like me. I wanted to skip coming here because nobody talked to me last year, not even my roommate, but my parents made me come.”

“I’m sorry, Richie,” Eddie said softly. “That must’ve really sucked.”

Richie shrugged again.

“Well, you don’t have to worry about nobody talking to you this year. Even if it’s just me, that’s gotta be better than nobody right?”

“You mean it?” Richie asked as his face lit up.

Eddie nodded.

“I’ve been pretty lonely here before too, so I know what it’s like. But if you want a friend, then we can totally be friends.”

“Then we’ll be friends!” Richie said happily. “So, tell me about you, Eds.”

“I told you it’s just Eddie,” Eddie said before he abruptly changed his mind. “Actually, you know what? If we’re going to be friends, maybe we should have nicknames for each other. You can call me ‘Eds’ and maybe I could call you ‘Chee’ if that’s okay?”

Richie considered him for a moment before he grinned.

“I like it, Eds! Now, tell me a little bit more about you!”

“There’s not much too tell. I live with my Mom back in Derry. My Dad died a couple of years ago and Mom doesn’t like me staying home alone during the summer, so she sends me here to get to know other kids.” At this, Eddie rolled his eyes. “It’s not like I’ve made any friends while here. Well, except for Bill, my old roommate from the first year here, but he’s never come back since then, so I don’t know if that really counts. What about you, Chee?”

Richie shrugged.

“My story is pretty much the same, but I come from the other side of Maine. My parents send me here every year hoping that I’ll meet some friends, even though nobody in my hometown goes there, so I guess they want me to have long-distance friends? I don’t know, Eds, it’s weird. I’ve never really made friends while here and I really wanted to skip out this year, but they made me promise to give it at least one more year before I give it up. Although, I gotta say Eds, I’m kinda glad I said yes to coming this year. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have gotten to meet you.”

Eddie blushed at this comment while Richie grinned at him happily.

“T-thanks, Chee,” Eddie said.

“Of course, Eds. Now, listen, you wanna go swimming with everyone else in a bit? We don’t have to talk to anyone else; we can just hang out together in the water if you want.”

“Yeah, I’d like that!”

* * *

As the sun was setting around them, Richie and Eddie sat next to each other around the campfire. The temperature was starting to cool down, so Eddie had brought his hoodie with him and was wearing it. Richie had put on jeans after they went swimming, insisting to Eddie that he would be warm enough, especially right next to the fire.

Eventually, the camp counselors passed around roasting sticks for everyone to make s’mores. Richie took his roasting stick enthusiastically while Eddie shook his head when he was offered one. Richie frowned at him.

“You don’t like s’mores, Eds?” he asked.

Eddie glanced around to make sure that nobody would was listening before he responded.

“I’m too nervous about getting something caught on fire,” he whispered. “Go ahead, laugh and make fun of me like everyone else.”

“Eds, I’m not gonna make fun of you,” Richie said, grabbing onto Eddie’s hand and lacing their fingers together. Eddie was taken aback by this gesture, but he found himself smiling. “Do you want some s’mores, though, Eds? I’ll make you some if you want.”

Eddie nodded quickly and Richie smiled at him. Richie held on to Eddie’s hand while he roasted marshmallows for the both of them. He only let go of Eddie’s hand when it came time to finish making the s’mores by adding chocolate and graham crackers. Once he had made four s’mores in total, Richie passed two to Eddie. Eddie took a bite and beamed at Richie.

“It’s delicious, Chee, thank you!” Eddie said, grinning at Richie with marshmallow gluing his mouth together.

Richie simply smiled back at Eddie as he took a bite of his own s’more.

* * *

Richie woke with a start. He could hear whimpering to his right. He sat up in his sleeping bag and crawled over to Eddie, who was tossing and turning in his sleeping bag. Eddie was quietly saying Richie’s name in a pleading tone. Richie gently reached down to shake Eddie awake. Eddie woke instantly, gasping for air as he did.

“Hey, it’s just me, Eds,” Richie whispered. Eddie’s eyes immediately shot up to Richie, who could see relief spreading on Eddie’s face.

“Chee!” Eddie breathed out. “You’re here!”

“Of course I’m here, Eddie. Are you okay? What happened?”

“It’s nothing,” Eddie said, shaking his head and trying to lie back down.

“Hey, hey, talk to me, Eddie. You were whispering my name when you were dreaming. What happened? Were you having a bad dream about me?”

Eddie froze as he heard these words come out of Richie’s mouth. He looked up at Richie, who was looking at him with concern in his eyes. Eddie wasn’t quite sure, but he didn’t sense any judgment coming off Richie. In fact, it almost looked like Richie pitied him. He wasn’t sure if that made the situation worse or better. Eddie sighed.

“We were swimming alone together at the lake,” Eddie replied, not sure if he should be totally honest with Richie, but not finding it in his heart to lie. “Suddenly, something grabbed you by the legs and you were drowning, Chee. I tried to swim to you, but you kept getting further and further away from me, no matter how hard I swam. Then I saw you go under and you wouldn’t come back up.”

Eddie started to cry at this, but he didn’t let himself dissolve completely. Richie wordlessly reached over and grabbed onto one of Eddie’s hands again.

“I thought….I thought…..you were….” Eddie stammered before he burst into sobs.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, Eddie,” Richie said as he leaned forward and pulled Eddie into a hug.

Eddie sobbed into Richie’s shoulder. Richie cooed quietly and whispered words of encouragement into Eddie’s ear as he held Eddie close and rubbed circles on his back. It took several moments for Eddie to calm down. Soon, his sobbing turned into hiccups and his breathing and heart rate both returned to normal. When Richie felt Eddie start to go limp in his embrace, he broke the hug.

“I’m sorry, Chee,” Eddie said as he impatiently wiped away the last of your tears. “I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“It’s okay, Eds. I understand. I’m glad I woke up so I could be here for you. You shouldn’t have to think about a bad dream like that by yourself.”

“Thank you for saying that, but I’ll understand if you wanna get a new roommate —”

“Hey, hey, I’m not going to abandon you like that, Eddie, I promise,” Richie said, gripping onto Eddie’s hand and holding it tightly, but gently. “You’re such a good friend, Eds. I don’t wanna lose that for the rest of this week, or for the rest of my life.”

Richie closed his mouth at this revelation as panic started coursing through his veins. Eddie looked up at him, confused, before he smiled gently at Richie.

“You want to be friends for life, Chee?” Eddie asked. Richie nodded nervously. “That’s so nice of you. I’ve never had a friend like that.”

“Neither have I. Maybe we can be each other’s best friends for life.”

“I would like that, Chee,” Eddie said as he wiped away fresh tears that were starting to fall down his face.

“Me too,” Richie said as he raised a finger to gently brush away the tears on Eddie’s face, too. He pulled Eddie into another hug and held him tightly, trying to convey that Eddie was safe and protected with him. When he broke the hug, Richie yawned.

Eddie giggled.

“Yeah, I think we should get back to bed,” Eddie said.

Richie nodded as he let go of Eddie’s hand and crawled over to his sleeping bag. Instead of getting inside it, Richie dragged his sleeping bag closer to Eddie and brought it right next to Eddie’s sleeping bag.

“What are you doing?” Eddie asked.

“This way if you have a bad dream and wake up, you’ll know that I’m right here,” Richie explained.

Eddie smiled at Richie as he got into his sleeping bag. Richie mimicked him, but kept his arms out of the sleeping bag. He nervously reached over and grabbed Eddie’s hand, lacing their fingers together again.

“This okay?” Richie asked in a tone barely louder than a whisper.

“Yes,” Eddie breathed out.

Richie smiled at him and closed his eyes. Eddie mimicked him.

“Goodnight, Eds.”

“Goodnight, Chee. Thank you for being here and for being my friend.”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this little one-shot. Thanks to spastuetheobsessedphylosopher for requesting it; I loved the idea when it was pitched to me and I had fun writing this! It certainly helped pass the time during a slow work day. 
> 
> Come follow me and/or yell at me on Tumblr: [@wackywriterwhowriteswhenever](http://wackywriterwhowriteswhenever.tumblr.com)


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